


My All

by DontOffendTheBees



Series: Candy Hearts [10]
Category: In the Flesh (TV)
Genre: Angst, Christmas, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Family, Ficlet, Friendship/Love, M/M, Partially Deceased Syndrome, Post-Series, Segregation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-06 16:10:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5423483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DontOffendTheBees/pseuds/DontOffendTheBees
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's their first Christmas living alone together- but neither of them feels the festivity.</p><p>Part of the Candy Hearts series- stories are otherwise completely unrelated and need not all be read/be read in order.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My All

**Author's Note:**

> And nooooow, the end is neeeeear, and so I faaaaaace the final cuuuurtain!
> 
> Last installment of the Candy Hearts series, and I'm revisiting the ultimate OTP, the beautiful zombie boyfriends who made my writing career (if you can call one or two mildly popular multi-chapter fics a career. I certainly count it). It's time for some Siren!
> 
> I want to preface this by saying I'm sorry. I tried to write them a fluffy Christmas ficlet, I really did, but I just wasn't feeling it this year, and I got a sad idea based on Dom Mitchell's tweets about the hypothetical series 3 plot. If you want happy Crimbo fluff, I'd point you to my entry for last years ITF advent calendar. Much cheerier.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy! <3

“Anyone home?”

Silence answered him. Simon closed the door quietly behind him, on guard, but trying to remain calm. He’d probably just fallen asleep. Maybe he had his headphones in and hadn’t heard him enter. All the same, Simon kept his steps light and his eyes peeled as he walked further into the bungalow.

He gave an audible sigh of relief when he entered the living room. The back of a familiar red-blonde head greeted him. “Hey,” he breathed, taking a step closer.

Kieren turned his head slightly. “Hi,” he said, voice low and eyes downcast.

Simon frowned, all his paranoid speculations from seconds earlier rearing their ugly heads once more. Had someone been here? Was it Julian? One of his old hangers-on? Had they threatened him? Had they injured him? It was all Simon could do to keep his steps even as he closed the distance between them. He kneeled at Kieren’s side in front of the couch. “Kieren?” he asked, placing a cold hand on the boy’s knee and wishing he could provide some form of warmth. Wishing that Kieren would be able to feel it if he did.

Kieren sighed. He sounded sad, but not scared. Just wistful. Immediately Simon’s fear dissipated, but the gloom on his love’s face was still enough to make his gut clench. “Hey,” he said again, giving his knee a squeeze. “Talk to me.”

“I just miss them,” Kieren said, fingers clenching and unclenching. Simon understood in a second. It had been almost two months since the fence had been built, the people relocated, the undead and the living forced into segregation. Two months since Kieren had last set eyes on his parents, or his sister. “I suppose…” he continued quietly, swallowing past a lump in his throat. “I suppose I just assumed everything would be back to normal by… this time.”

Simon ducked his head. Of course. “We’ll call ‘em, yeah?” he suggested, forcing a smile. “Wish ‘em a merry Christmas.”

Kieren nodded. He looked tired. Sad, and defeated, and just so, so tired. He shouldn’t be allowed to look like that.

“Simon?” he asked, frowning. “You alright?”

It took Simon a moment to realise his grip on Kieren’s knee had tightened. It would have been painful, if Kieren had the ability to feel such a thing. “Yeah,” Simon rasped, releasing him. “Fine.”

Kieren’s expression had ‘bullshit’ written all over it. “Simon,” he said, voice a little more firm this time. His hand drifted up to Simon’s neck, fingers sliding into the hair at the nape. Holding him in place as well as reassuring him.

Now it was Simon’s turn to sigh. “I just want it to be over, Kieren.”

The ULA. The HVF. The fear and separation. The hounds seeking recompense for his treachery. The humans seeking any excuse to shoot him dead. The cold, crippling fear that one day he could come home, and find a message scrawled in Kieren’s lifeless blood on the walls.

Kieren’s face softened. “I know,” he said gently. He tugged Simon’s head down to rest across his lap, stroking his hair. “Me too.”

Simon closed his eyes and took a deep, unnecessary breath inwards. If he concentrated, he could pretend he could feel Kieren’s fingers on his scalp. The scrape of rough denim against his cheek. He could imagine that they both had their own natural scents, untainted by rot and dirt. Imagine that they were both warm and pulsing with life.

But he would live with this. The cool, quiet companionship they could offer each other. The muted light from a grey sky trickling through the window. Shaded from the glow as Kieren leaned forward, wrapping his arms around Simon’s head and shoulders in an awkward yet heartfelt embrace. The cold huff of air as the dead boy exhaled against his cheek. He would take every cold, muted second of this and cherish it for the gift it was.

“I love you,” he breathed, eyes drifting shut.

Kieren didn’t reply. He never replied. But he did tighten his grip. Nuzzle his face into Simon’s hair. Breathe deeply into his useless lungs as if he too was imagining scents and sensations long lost to them. Simon knew in his heart that it was the best the boy could give.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, there we go. A bittersweet ending for a strange little series. I hope you guys enjoyed :) Comments are always much appreciated and the best Christmas present I could ask for <3 Merry Christmas, guys, and happy *insert holiday name here* to those of you who don't celebrate it, I hope all y'alls' Decembers are filled with fun :)
> 
> Until next time! X


End file.
